A conventional use case network may include concurrent local and personal area wireless networks. For example, a laptop or notebook computer may connect to, e.g., a wireless bridge or a remote printer, over a wireless local area network (WLAN) and to a peripheral device, e.g., a projector or a storage device, over a wireless personal area network (WPAN).
One method for implementing a concurrent wireless local and personal area network is to equip a device with two independent wireless adapters, which may operate according to the same wireless protocol or two different wireless protocols. For example, “IEEE Std 802.11, 1999 Edition (ISO/IEC 8802-11: 1999)” defines a set of standards for WLAN communication and “IEEE Std 802.15.1-2002 defines a set of standards for WPAN communication. Using two independent adapters may involve doubling of physical resources such as, for example, baseband processors and/or radio frequency circuitry.
Another option is to utilize the same adapter for both WLAN and WPAN communication by allowing the user to manually switch between the two modes. For example, an 802.11 network interface card (NIC) may normally operate as part of a basic service set (BSS) in a WLAN, but may be manually switched to operate as part of an independent basic service set (IBSS), e.g., in a WPAN, by allowing peer-to-peer communication. However, a manually switched adapter may only connect to one network, for example, either a WPAN or a WLAN, at any given time.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn accurately or to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity or several physical components included in one functional block or element. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the drawings to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. Moreover, some of the blocks depicted in the drawings may be combined into a single function.